Automatic carding and drawing assembly



Jan. 31, 1967 R. BINDER ETAL AUTOMATIC CARDING AND DRAWING ASSEMBLY 2 Sheets$heet 1 Filed March 25, 1964 INVENTOR5. E04; Emmi/r 1967 R. BINDER ETAL I AUTOMATIC CARDING AND DRAWING ASSEMBLY Filed March 25, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet -2 PA 0L 577M: 2/

United States Patent 3,300,817 AUTOMATHC CARDHNG AND DRAWING ASSEMBLY Roif Binder and Hansruedi Lamparter, Winterthur, and Paul St'aheli, Wallisellen, Switzerland, assignors to Rieter Machine Works Ltd, Winterthur, Switzerland, a corporation of Switzerland Filed Mar. 25, 1964, Ser. No. 354,566 Claims priority, application Switzerland, Apr. 5, 1963, 4,432/63 Claims. (Cl. 19-.21)

The present invention relates to an automatic carding plant, particularly to a carding plant having a plurality of continuously fed independently operating cards which deliver the produced card slivers through a sliver storage device to a conveyor belt.

In conventional plants of this type stopping of the doflfer and simultaneous stopping feeding the card while the cylinder continues to rotate, the card web is broken shortly after resumption of sliver delivery and the broken card web must be pieced together either by hand or by special card web piecing means. Piecing by hand makes no sense in an automatic carding plant. Special card web piecing means are described, for example, in the patent application of Rolf Binder and Paul Staheli, Serial No. 167,789, filed January 22, 1962 now Patent No. 3,196,492 granted July 27, 1965. Automatic card web piecing means require mechanical or electrical synchronization of the operation of the cards and of the conveyor receiving the slivers from the cards. Mechanical as well as electrical devices are complicated and very expensive as rigid synchronization is made difiicult because it must be possible that individual cards be stopped, for example, for stripping, grinding the garniture and making repairs. Rigid synchronization reduces operating efficiency because when stopping one card a drawing arrangement and all other cards which deliver sliver to the same conveyor belts and the latter must be simultaneously stopped.

The arrangement according to the invention avoids the aforedescribed disadvantages of conventional arrangements by providing an automatic carding plant having a plurality of continuously fed and independently operating cards which deliver the produced card slivers through sliver storage devices to a conveyor belt for doubling the slivers and conveying the doubled sliver to a drawing arrangement, whereby, upon stoppage of the conveyor belt operating simultaneously with the drawing arrangement, the sliver delivery of the cards continues until devices for sensing the presence of sliver in the storage devices are activated and shift delivery of the cards to slow speed operation whereby the still delivered slivers are deposited in the respective storage devices. The arrangement according to the invention may also be used in a carding plant having but one card delivering sliver to transport means for conducting the sliver to a driving arrangement.

In the arrangement according to the invention sliver delivery operates at extremely slow speed when the drawing arrangement and the conveyor belt are restarted until the sliver stored in the storage device has all been delivered to the conveyor belt and the aforesaid sensing device does not sense presence of sliver in the storage device. When all sliver accumulated in the storage device has been carried away by the conveyor belt or other transport means the sliver delivery means of the card are operated at normal speed.

With the simplified system according to the invention the transportmeans for conducting the sliver to a drawing arrangement may form an elongation of the feed table of the drawing arrangement and may form a separately driven unit with the drawing arrangement; the

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card is operated independently of the drawing and transport arrangement and is connected with the latter solely by the sliver.

The novel features which are considered characteristic of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, and additional objects and advantages thereof will best be understood from the following description of an embodiment thereof when read in connection with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic elevation of a plant according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic top plan view of the plant shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective diagrammatic illustration of a card including card sliver storage means and of a portion of a card sliver conveyor.

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic sectional view of a power transmission forming part of a card drive.

FIG. 5 is a large scale cross-sectional view of a part of the transmission shown in FIG. 4, the section being made along line VV of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an electric wiring diagram.

Referring more particularly to- FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawing, numeral 1 designates a cotton feeder continuous ly feeding cotton into a cotton-circulating duct 2 which operates at super-atmospheric pressure. The cotton is continuously diverted from the duct 2 through shafts 4 into cards 3 which are placed in a row. The card slivers 5 delivered by the cards move directly from the calender rollers 6 of the cards onto a convey-or belt 7 running alongside the cards, as shown in FIG. 3, when the apparatus is in normal operation. The conveyor belt 7 transports the doubled sliver arrangement 8 formed by continuously added card slivers to a drawing arangement 9 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The drawing arrangement 9 drives the conveyor belt 7 through a belt drive 9' at a speed corresponding to the feeding speed of the drawing arrangement 9.

If, due to an irregularity, the drawing arrangement 9 is stopped the conveyor belt 7 is stopped simultaneously so that the degree of stretch which is commonly present in the sliver is maintained in relation to the speed of the conveyor belt to avoid any deflective la'ggings in the sliver which would occur if the conveyor belt stopped before the drawing arrangement. The drive of the individual cards is entirely independent of the drive of the drawing arrangement 9 and of the conveyor belt 7. A doffer 11, web delivery rollers 12 and calender rollers 6 are driven through a transmission 13 by belt drives 14, 15 and 16. The transmission 13 which includes a freewheeling or overtaking coupling, to be described later, is driven by a motor 17 which is controlled by a time switch. The shaft 11 of the dofier 11 is connected to a feed roller 19 feeding material to a licker-in for synchronous rotation of the dotfer and the feed roller.

A sliver storage container 20 is placed below the calender rollers 6. Sliver 43 is deposited from above into the container and is removed from the bottom of the container as shown in dash-dot lines in FIG. 3.

A light source 21 emits a light beam 22 into the storage container 20 and onto a photoelectric cell 23 at the bottom of the container. Electric current passed by the photoelectric cell 23 actuates a switch 24- (FIG. 6) for controlling a circuit 25. The circuit 25 contains a solenoid 26 for actuating a clutch which will be described later. Simultaneously with the closing of the switch in the circuit 25 a switch in a circuit 27 is opened. The circuit 27 contains a time relay 18 which, when the switch in the circuit 27 is closed, stops the card motor 17 after a predetermined period of time.

The card motor 17 drives a pulley 28 (FIG. 4) which drives a shaft 29 of the transmission 13'. A spur gear 30 is rigidly connected to the shaft 29 and drives a spur gear 31 connected to a shaft 33 which drives an overtaking coupling 32 (FIG. When the card is in normal operation the solenoid 26 is energized and pulls a clutch disc 33', which is axially movable but not rotatable on the shaft 29, against the action of a spring onto a clutch disc 34 mounted on a hollow shaft 35' to which also a large diameter spur gear 35 is mounted. The latter engages a pinion 36 which is mounted on a hollow shaft 37 carrying a pulley 38 which drives, through the belt 16, the feeding mechanism as well as the sliver delivery mechanism of the car. When the speed of the hollow shaft 37 is approximately ten times the speed of the shaft 33 the overriding clutch 32 acts as a freewheeling clutch and there is no coaction between the shafts 37 and 33.

The overriding clutch 32-, shown in FIG. 5, is conventional and comprises an inner ring 39 rigidly connected to the shaft 33 and placed inside the hollow shaft 37. The ring 39 is provided with recesses 40 receiving rollers 41 which are pressed by spring-loaded pins 42 into the receding spaoes between the hollow shaft 37 and the recesses 40. During normal operation the hollow shaft 37 rotating in anticlockwise direction rotates the belt pulley 38, there being no effect on the slowly rotating shaft 33. When the clutch disc 33' is disengaged from the disc 34 the drive is effected through the spur gears 30 and 31, the slowly rotating shaft 33 driving the hollow shaft 37 in anticlockwise direction due to the clamping of the rollers 41 between the interior wall of the shaft 37 and the recesses 40. The hollow shaft 37 is taken along by the shaft 33 :at a speed which is about fifty times slower then the speed at which the hollow shaft 37 is rotated by the spur gears 35 and 36. The sliver delivery part of the card operates now at a speed which is about ten times slower than normal operating speed. When the clutch 33, 34 is reengaged the rotational speed of the hollow shaft 37 is about fifty times faster than when the shaft 37 was driven by the shaft 33. The shaft 37 overtakes the shaft 33 so that there is no wedge action on the rollers41 between the recesses 40 and the interior wall of the shaft 37.

The plant operates as follows:

If the drawing arrangement 9 is stopped the conveyor belt 7 stops simultaneously whereas the cards 3 continue to operate at normal speed. The slivers 5 are now no more pulled laterally away from the calender rollers 6 as shown in solid lines in FIG. 3, but form serpentines in each respective storage vessel. The operation of each card is simultaneous with the other cards although each is operated independently of the others through the respective card motors 17. Accordingly, the operation of only one card 3 will be described hereat.

As the sliver is serpentined into the storage vessel 20 it interrupts the beam of light 22 between the light source 21 and the photoelectric cell 23. This causes opening of the switch in the circuit 25- and deenergization of the solenoid 26 so that the clutch 35', 34 is disengaged and the transmission 13 operates the sliver delivery means of the respective card at slow speed. When the switch in circuit 25 is opened, the switch in the circuit 27 containing the time relay 18 is closed and the time relay switches off the current supply to the motor '17 after a predetermined time of slow speed operation. If the drawing arrangement 9 is restarted the conveyor belt 7 is restarted simultaneously and operates at a speed corresponding to the speed of operation of the drawing arrangement. Since the sliver delivery means of the cards are still operated at slow speed and the drawing arrangement operates at normal speed the slivers accumulated in the containers 20 are pulled out of the containers. After all sliver accumulated in a container 20 is removed, the respective light beam 22 is not interrupted and the photoelectric cell 23 causes closing of the circuit 25 and energization of the solenoid 26 which is followed by engagement of the clutch 35, 34 and operation of the pulley 38 at full speed. At the same time the circuit 27 is opened so that the time relay 18 cannot act and the motor 17 continues to rotate. Now the card delivers sliver at the normal speed at which the sliver is transported by the conveyor 7 and worked by the drawing arrangement 9. Should the drawing arrangement be stopped for a greater period of time than allowed by the storage capacity of the containers 20, the time relay 18 stops the motor 17 driving the card whose storage container is full of sliver and the card runs out without causing breakage of the produced sliver. It is noted that once the card motors 17 have been stopped, they are restarted in any conventional manner, for example, by a manual operation.

We claim:

1. An automatic carding plant comprising:

a plurality of continuously fed independently operating cards,

a drawing arrangement, each card having cotton feed and sliver delivery means and stationary storage means for passage of sliver therethrough, said storage means being adapted to receive sliver therein in serpentine layers upon stopping of said drawing arrangement,

conveyor means for receiving the card slivers from said delivery means, for doubling the slivers, and for conveying the doubled slivers to said drawing arrangement,

said conveyor means being operatively connected to said drawing arrangement for simultaneous operation therewith,

a motor operatively connected to each of said cards for driving said cards,

power transmission means operatively interposed between said motor and the cotton feed and sliver delivery means of the card driven by said motor,

said transmission means comprising a high speed and a low speed transmission and means for selectively activating one at a time of said transmissions, and

means for sensing the presence of an accumulation of sliver in said storage means,

said last mentioned means being operatively connected to said means for selectively activating one at a time of said transmissions for activating the high speed transmission in response to the absence of an accumulation of sliver in said storage means and for activating the low speed transmission in response to the presence of an accumulation of sliver in said storage means, whereby said carding machine continuously delivers sliver for a predetermined period of time during stoppage of said drawing arrangement to avoid breakage of sliver during said continued delivery and upon restarting of said drawing arrangement.

2. An automatic carding plant as defined in claim 1 comprising: timed means operatively connected to said means for sensing the presence of an accumulation of sliver in said storage means and to said motor for stopping said motor after a predetermined period of time after activation of said low speed transmission by said means for sensing the presence of an accumulation of sliver in said storage means.

3. An automatic carding plant comprising:

a plurality of continuously fed independently operating cards,

each card having cotton feed and sliver delivery means, and storage means for passage of sliver therethrough,

a drawing arrangement,

conveyor means for receiving the card slivers from said delivery means, for doubling the slivers, and for conveying the doubled slivers to said drawing arrangement,

said conveyor means being operatively connected to said drawing arrangement for simultaneous operation therewith,

a motor operatively connected to each of said cards for driving the cards,

a high speed and a low speed transmission operatively interposed between said motor and said cotton feed and sliver delivery means,

said high speed transmission including a friction clutch for connecting said motor to said high speed transmission,

said low speed transmission being continuously connected to and driven by said motor,

an overrunning clutch operatively interposed between said high speed transmission and said low speed trans mission for connecting the latter to said sliver delivery means when said friction clutch is disengaged, and

means responsive to the presence of an accumulation of sliver in said storage means and operatively connected to said friction clutch for disengaging said friction clutch when there is an accumulation of sliver in said storage means and for engaging said friction clutch when there is no accumulation of sliver in said storage means.

4. An automatic carding plant as defined in claim 3 wherein said means responsive to the presence of an accumulation of sliver in said storage means includes a light source directing a light beam into said storage means and a light-sensitive means in said storage means for receiving light from said source when there is no accumulation of sliver in said storage means,

an electric circuit,

a solenoid interposed in said circuit and operatively connected to said friction clutch for engaging the friction clutch when said solenoid is energized,

comprising:

a second circuit,

a switch in said second circuit connected to said switch in the first circuit for opening said switch in the second circuit upon closing of the switch in the first circuit, and conversely,

a time relay in said second circuit,

said time relay being operatively connected to said motor for stopping said motor after a predetermined period of time after closing of said switch in said second circuit.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 469,835 3/1892 Dobson et al. 19106 2,795,012 6/1957 Gibson et al. 19-98 2,964,803 12/1960 Robinson 19-240 3,102,305 9/1963 Haneda et al. 19157 3,184,798 5/1965 Burnet et al. 19-65 MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner.

DONALD W. PARKER, Examiner.

D. NEWTON, Assistant Examiner. 

1. AN AUTOMATIC CARDING PLANT COMPRISING: A PLURALITY OF CONTINUOUSLY FED INDEPENDENT OPERATING CARDS, A DRAWING ARRANGEMENT, EACH CARD HAVING COTTON FEED AND SLIVER DELIVERY MEANS AND STATIONARY STORAGE MEANS FOR PASSAGE OF SLIVER THERETHROUGH SAID STORAGE MEANS BEING ADAPTED TO RECEIVE SLIVER THEREIN IN SERPENTINE LAYERS UPON STOPPING OF SAID DRAWING ARRANGEMENT, CONVEYOR MEANS FOR RECEIVING THE CARD SLIVERS FROM SAID DELIVERY MEANS, FOR DOUBLING THE SLIVERS FROM FOR CONVEYING THE DOUBLED SLIVERS TO SAID DRAWING ARRANGEMENT, SAID CONVEYOR MEANS BEING OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO SAID DRAWING ARRANGEMENT FOR SIMULTANEOUS OPERATION THEREWITH, A MOTOR OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO EACH OF SAID CARDS FOR DRIVING SAID CARDS, POWER TRANSMISSION MEANS OPERATIVELY INTERPOSED BETWEEN SAID MOTOR AND THE COTTON FEED AND SLIVER DELIVERY MEANS OF THE CARD DRIVEN BY SAID MOTOR, SAID TRANSMISSION MEANS COMPRISING A HIGH SPEED AND A LOW SPEED TRANSMISSION AND MEANS FOR SELECTIVELY ACTIVATING ONE AT A TIME OF SAID TRANSMISSIONS, AND MEANS FOR SENSING THE PRESENCE OF AN ACCUMULATION OF SLIVER IN SAID STORAGE MEANS, SAID LAST MENTIONED MEANS BEING OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO SAID MEANS FOR SELECTIVELY ACTIVATING ONE AT A TIME OF SAID TRANSMISSIONS FOR ACTIVATING THE HIGH SPEED TRANSMISSION IN RESPONSE TO THE ABSENCE OF AN ACCUMULATION OF SLIVER IN SAID STORAGE MEANS AND FOR ACTIVATING THE LOW SPEED TRANSMISSION IN RESPONSE TO THE PRESENCE OF AN ACCUMULATION OF SLIVER IN SAID STORAGE MEANS, WHEREBY SAID CARDING MACHINE CONTINUOUSLY DELIVERS SLIVER FOR A PREDETERMINED PERIOD OF TIME DURING STOPPAGE OF SAID DRAWING ARRANGEMENT TO AVOID BREAKAGE OF SLIVER DURING SAID CONTINUED DELIVERY AND UPON RESTARTING OF SAID DRAWING ARRANGEMENT. 